Lawton Logan

In the middle of IMG College’s explosive growth the
last few years, Lawton Logan was an integral member of a team that added and
now manages close to $700 million in multimedia rights. It’s right where Logan
hoped to be when he graduated from the University of Richmond.

LawtonLoganIMG
College

“Sports
and entertainment were areas that really interested me early,” said Logan, a
senior vice president with IMG College in its Lexington, Ky., office. “I was
always attracted to the business side of sports and it’s something that still
drives me today. When I entered the business 15 years ago, the college space
was wide open. It was like the next frontier.”

Logan
began with a small marketing agency in Atlanta that worked on Braves
promotions. He subsequently moved to Cox, which had the radio rights for the
University of Georgia, and gained his first exposure to the college business.

Age: 38

Title: Senior vice president, collegiate properties

Company: IMG College

Education: B.A., communications, University of Richmond; MBA, Georgia State University

Executive you most admire: Robert Iger, president and CEO of the Walt Disney Co.

Business advice: "It is amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares about who gets the credit." — Robert Yates

For 10 years, Logan worked with the
Bulldogs’ network, at the same time studying for his MBA at Georgia State.
Then, in 2004, Logan decided to take a chance. New management had come in to
run Host Communications, a multimedia rights holder that at one time had been a
giant in college marketing and media but had fallen on hard times.

Logan
was drawn to Host by new CEO Tom Stultz and went right to work on securing the
hometown team, the University of Kentucky. The negotiations resulted in a
10-year, $80 million bundled rights package that sent shockwaves across the
collegiate landscape.

As
Host attempted to gather momentum, with Logan at the forefront of seeking new
business, IMG acquired the company in 2007. High-dollar deals followed with
premium properties like Florida and Ohio State.

With so many long-term deals, many
stretching out 10 years or more, Logan’s focus has transitioned a bit, from new
business to helping manage the current properties more efficiently.

“With these very significant contracts,
the expenses are fixed,” Logan said of the rights fees IMG College pays the
schools. “Growth has to come from top-line revenue. We’re always looking for
new properties, but there aren’t really that many schools left out there
without a long-term deal. So we’re really focused on the growth of our existing
properties and execution now.”